CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice’s Chief of Staff Brian Abraham says there will be an aggressive program coming in the next three months to recruit and retain nurses in West Virginia.
Abraham said during an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline” Wednesday that when Gov. Justice announced the $48 million nursing-focused program last week there wasn’t enough said in the news conference about recruitment and retention.
“The immediate backlash from them (nurses in the legislature and the West Virginia Nursing Association) or the complaint if you will, is the fact that during the initial press conference these particular items dealing with the immediate needs weren’t highlighted as much as the educational aspects of it.”
The initial announcement focused on nursing programs at BridgeValley Community & Technical College, Glenville State College and Concord University in hopes of training 2,000 new nurses over the next four years. House of Delegates Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, herself a nurse questioned the long-term goals over the current needs.
“While investing in the future of healthcare education is always appreciated, this will not help the current crisis,” Summers told MetroNews. “I was hoping to hear something a bit more strategic and novel that included the ideas of the current bedside nurses. How can we keep them (us) a while longer? That, I suppose, would have required asking us.”
Governor Justice allocated $48 million in federal CARES Act money expanding the nursing education industry in the state. Brian Abraham, Governor Justice’s Chief of Staff, gives a better explanation about this move by the Governor to @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/vKNNTTSraP
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) December 29, 2021
Abraham said Wednesday it was a “slight oversight” not to focus more on retention and recruitment at the initial announcement. He said it’s the first pillar of the program and they told Summers that in a Tuesday meeting.
“We explained some of the details and I think she appreciated the further explanation and understood we were considering the needs of nurses now and then she provided insight to us on what some of her other concerns were which will help us build the program as we go forward,” Abraham said.
He said the governor’s office allocated $58.9 million in CARES Act money to hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities in the last 60 days to help with staffing issues.
“We believe that money was used for that. If not, hospitals will have to come back and explain to us where it went,” Abraham said.
Nursing initiatives
Information from the governor’s office forwarded to MetroNews Wednesday, says there will be the creation of a statewide incentive program for nurses who move to West Virginia including a cash incentive and a “variety of state perks.”
“It’s somewhat similar to our remote worker program that by offering every kind of enticement from tourism to direct monetary payments to bonuses…the details of those will be developed,” Abraham said.
READ Initiatives of new plan here
For existing nurses, the plan is to relieve some burden by eliminating non-nursing tasks.
“In addition, the expansion program will creatively increase nursing ranks by allowing for more externs to fill gaps in nursing assistant care and removing barriers to nursing faculty and advance practice nurses serving in direct care RN roles,” information from the governor’s office said. “Additionally the program will provide nurses and their families with the opportunity to take advantage of our beautiful state through a variety of perks.”
Other initiatives include the full funding of the West Virginia Nursing Scholarship Program, provide grants to create and expand nursing programs, create a nursing faculty loan repayment program and centralize applications to nursing programs.
Abraham said the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, DHHR, Tourism and WorkForce West Virginia will be working on finalizing the details during the next three months when federal law requires the CARES money to be allocated.
“The programs will be quickly developed. This is something that’s not just an aspirational thing, the governor demands everything to be in execution phase when he announces it—so we’re prepared to get this going,” Abraham said. “The governor’s intent is that we will do everything we can to attract workers to West Virginia and take care of the ones we have.”
Abraham said the needs are not just limited to nursing.
“Our other health care workers we are seeing these same problems with along with our emergency services workers,” Abraham said. “The governor put $10 million into that (EMS) crisis program and we’re going to have to work with those stakeholders in the (legislative) session to come up with a program.”